MIRA
INFORM REPORT
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Report Date : |
06.08.2011 |
IDENTIFICATION DETAILS
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Name : |
DEAD SEA WORKS LTD. |
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Registered Office : |
Potash House Beer Sheva, 84100 |
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Country : |
Israel |
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Date of Incorporation : |
Not Abatable |
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Legal Form : |
Private Independent |
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Line of Business : |
Manufacture of other chemical products |
RATING & COMMENTS
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MIRA’s Rating : |
B |
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RATING |
STATUS |
PROPOSED CREDIT LINE |
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26-40 |
B |
Capability to overcome financial difficulties seems comparatively
below average. |
Small |
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Status : |
Moderate |
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Payment Behaviour : |
Unknown |
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Litigation : |
-- |
NOTES :
Any query related to this report can be made
on e-mail: infodept@mirainform.com
while quoting report number, name and date.
ECGC Country Risk Classification List – March 31st, 2011
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Country Name |
Previous Rating (31.12.2010) |
Current Rating (31.03.2011) |
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Israel |
A2 |
A2 |
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Risk Category |
ECGC
Classification |
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Insignificant |
A1 |
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Low |
A2 |
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Moderate |
B1 |
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High |
B2 |
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Very High |
C1 |
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Restricted |
C2 |
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Off-credit |
D |
Company name and address
Dead Sea Works Ltd.
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Business Description |
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All Other Chemical Product and Preparation Manufacturing |
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Industry
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Industry |
Chemical Manufacturing |
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ANZSIC 2006: |
1899 - Other Basic Chemical Product
Manufacturing Not Elsewhere Classified |
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NACE 2002: |
246 - Manufacture of other chemical
products |
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NAICS 2002: |
32599 - All Other Chemical Product and
Preparation Manufacturing |
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UK SIC 2003: |
246 - Manufacture of other chemical
products |
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US SIC 1987: |
2899 - Chemicals and Chemical
Preparations, Not Elsewhere Classified |
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Key Executives
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News
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1 - Profit & Loss Item Exchange Rate: USD 1 = USD 1
2 - Balance Sheet Item Exchange Rate: USD 1 = USD 1
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Executives Report
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Ein Bokek hotels
on Dead Sea facing ruin as waters rise By Patrizia Schlosser, dpa
Dpa English: 11 July 2011
[What follows is the full text of the news story.]
Ein Bokek, Israel
(dpa) - Israeli experts have warned that hotels and spas situated on the
southern shores of the Dead Sea face the risk of serious flooding if immediate
action is not taken to tackle rising waters.
Ironically, the
shallow water in front of the hotels isn't the Dead Sea, which dried up three
decades ago, but is a reservoir maintained by Dead Sea Works (DSW), a company
that pumps water from the northern to the southern part of the lake, where it
is evaporated to extract minerals, including bromine, potash and magnesium.
At over 400 metres
below sea level, the Dead Sea is the lowest point on the face of the earth. The
700-square-kilometre lake is essentially split into two sections, the northern
one which has the tourist infrastructure and the southern one, which is mainly
made up of evaporation pans.
While the water
levels in the northern natural section are sinking by up to one metre a year,
the water is rising in the artificial southern part where most of the popular
tourist hotels are to be found.
For decades, DSW
has produced potash with the help of evaporation but in this process salt sinks
to the bottom of the pool and raises the level of the south part of the Dead
Sea.
"The water
will have reached the hotels within a couple of years," says hotelier
Nehemia Ben-Porat, chairman of the Dead Sea Hotels Association.
Hotels and houses
built in and around Ein Bokek and Neve Zohar are under threat, despite everyone
being aware of the problem for many years. "It was ignored by all sides.
No-one wanted or wants to take responsibility for the protection of the
ecosystem," explains Karin Kloosterman, co-founder of the environmental
blog Green Prophet.
Meanwhile, DSW
does not feel it should take responsibility for the threat facing the hotels.
"If it wasn't for us there wouldn't be any hotels. We created the pool and
the hotels came later," says Noam Goldstein, an infrastructure manager for
the company.
Not surprisingly,
the hoteliers take a different stance on the issue and deny any blame.
"The company was still under state ownership when we built the hotels. We
thought the government would take responsibility, which hasn't happened to
date," says Ben-Porat.
The Israeli
government has taken an interest in the problem in recent years, but only as a
result of pressure from Israel'sHigh Court.
Geological experts
and consecutive State Comptroller's reports have long warned that the hotels
are running on borrowed time, but the options are limited. Tearing down the
hotels and building new ones further away from the shore had been suggested
while another idea involved the construction of a protective wall.
"No tourist
is going to come here if there is a dirty mound blighting the landscape or if
cranes are to be seen everywhere," warned Ben-Porat.
Instead, it now
looks like the salt deposits will be dredged from the lake, a plan that has the
support of hoteliers and environmentalists alike. "It does seem like the
best solution to us too," said Bromberg.
Yacimovich: Stop
Dead Sea Works ads
Jerusalem Post: 11 July 2011
[What follows is the full text of the news story.]
MK Shelly
Yacimovich (Labor) called on Sunday for The Second Authority for Television and
Radio to stop broadcasting "misleading" advertisements for the Dead
Sea Works. The potash plant launched a series of broadcast, print and outdoor
advertisements two weeks ago with the slogan "Dead Sea Works give life to
the Dead Sea."
The Labor
leadership candidate claimed in a letter to Second Authority chairman Menashe
Samira that the commercials "make the public think that the Dead Sea
Works' main role is to save the Dead Sea," and that the potash plant is an
environmental organization. A Facebook group also calling to remove the
advertisements had over 4,500 members at press time.(c) Copyright Jerusalem
Post. All rights reserved.
Netanyahu tours
Dead Sea to find solution for rising water levels and potential hotel flooding.
Environmental groups praise PM's support for...
Jerusalem Post: 28 June 2011
[What follows is the full text of the news story.]
Netanyahu tours
Dead Sea to find solution for rising water levels and potential hotel flooding.
Environmental groups praise PM's support for harvesting 20 million tons of sea
salt
Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu toured the Dead Sea region on Monday morning in order to
evaluate first-hand the impact of the flooding problem that could potentially
threaten the hotels and infrastructure in the southern section, as a
continuation of discussions he has held over the past few weeks, his office
announced in the afternoon.
The flooding would
be caused by a rising water level of about 200 millimeters per year in the
southern Pool #5, as the Dead Sea Works company has been perpetually pumping in
water in order to maintain operational efficiency as it harvests minerals from
its evaporation ponds, Prof. Alon Tal of Ben-Gurion University of the
Negev'sJacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research had explained to The
Jerusalem Post in mid-May.
At the end of that
month - and after the publication of a report co-authored by Tal - the Tourism
and Environmental Protection Ministries had announced that they would recommend
harvesting the 20 million tons of salt in the southern sea as the solution to
the dangerously high water levels there.
In response,
Netanyahu organized a team, chaired by Finance Ministry Budget Director Udi
Nisan and Accountant General Michal Abadi, to review different methods of
financing this preferred solution within the next 21 days, the Prime Minister's
Office said.
"The
Government has come to save the Dead Sea and it is also obligated to save its
tourism industry and scenic beauty as well," Netanyahu said in a statement
following the tour. "Previous governments talked about this but my
government is doing something. We will try to reach a solution through dialogue
with the Dead Sea Works, but if not, we will act with all the means - including
legal - at our disposal."
Joining Netanyahu
on the Dead Sea tour were Tourism Minister Stas Meseznikov, Environmental
Protection Minister Gilad Erdan, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, Interior
Minister Eli Yishai and Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman.
The Prime Minister
said that he hoped it would be possible to begin work on the salt extraction within
a few weeks, in an effort "to save this global natural resource,"
according to his media adviser. Netanyahu had originally been presented with
three alternative solutions - harvesting the salt, creating a lagoon for the
hotels or relocated the businesses to another region.
Environmental
groups praised Netanyahu's visit to the Dead Sea as well as his probable
support for the salt harvesting solution but expressed some additional requests
to the prime minister.
"The Dead Sea
harvest is only a partial solution to the environmental damage caused by the
Dead Sea Works plants," said Amit Bracha, executive director of the Israel
Union for Environmental Defense (Adam Teva v'Din) in a statement.
Bracha emphasized
that the Dead Sea Works company must bear the brunt of the costs and the
harvest must not harm the nearby Tze'elim Stream, and also stressed that
private companies also must be prohibited from establishing an additional
evaporation pond - Pool #6 - in the northern Dead Sea.
The Society for
the Protection of Nature called the salt harvesting option "the only
possibility that will allow for a balance" among Dead Sea Works
operations, hotels and nature, while cross border environmental organization
Friends of the Earth Middle East also lauded the prime minister's support.
"This is the
only solution that is sustainable and that will preserve the hotels in the long
run. Now it rests upon the Treasury to stand against the false campaign of Dead
Sea Works and not give in to the pressure of the property owners, who are
trying to evade responsibility for the damage they caused," said Gidon
Bromberg, Israel director of the group, in a statement. "Therefore, and
according to the 'polluter pays' principle, it is necessary to charge the full
cost of the salt harvest to the plants."
During his tour,
the prime minister also encouraged Israelis to vote for the Dead Sea in the
finals of the New 7 Wonders of Nature Competition, which concludes in November
2011 and pits the sea against 27 other sites across the world, his office said
in a second statement. In addition to logging on to www.new7wonders.com, voters
can cast their ballots by sending an SMS to 224 with the words "Dead
Sea" in Hebrew, English or Arabic, according to the statement.(c)
Copyright Jerusalem Post. All rights reserved.
Netanyahu opts for
Dead Sea salt harvesting
Globes (Tel Aviv): 27 June 2011
[What follows is the full text of the news story.]
June 27--Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today ordered outgoing Prime Minister's Office
director general Eyal Gabai and Ministry of Finance Budget Director Udi Nissan
to formulate within three weeks a final plan for financing the salt harvesting
of pool 5 in the southern basin of the Dead Sea, before they complete their
terms in office.
During a tour of
the Dead Sea today, Netanyahu said, "I want a proposal for the harvesting
within 21 days, in agreement with Dead Sea Works. If no agreement is
forthcoming, all options, including legal options, will be on the table as far
as we're concerned. Within a month from today, we will have a solution for
which everyone has been waiting for years, and we'll get underway. We need a
solution, because this is a magical place."
Minister of
Environmental Protection Gilad Erdan told "Globes" that the legal
options mentioned by Netanyahu included reopening Israel Chemicals Ltd's (TASE:
ICL) mining franchise, which is due to expire in 2030, charging the cost of the
salt harvesting on the company through legislation, and other measures.
The Ein Bokek area
along the southern basin of the Dead Sea, where hotels are located, is in
danger of flooding due to a rise in the water level of the Dead Sea Works pool
5. The phosphates extraction process at the pool has raised its water level by
20 centimeters per annum, due to the sinking of the ground salt. Meanwhile, the
water level in the northern basin has been falling steadily, due to the
diversion of water from the Jordan River.
Netanyahu was
presented with three alternative solutions: Harvesting the salt that has
accumulated at the bottom of the pool, creating a unique lagoon for the hotels
and relocating the hotels to a higher area.
___
To see more of the
Globes or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/nodeview.asp?fid=942.
Copyright (c)
2011, Globes, Tel Aviv, Israel
Distributed by
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For more
information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information
Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail
services@mctinfoservices.com, or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States,
call +1 312-222-4544)
Can the Dead Sea
survive?
New Zealand Herald, The: 18 June 2011
[What follows is the full text of the news story.]
The Dead Sea is dying,
goes the conventional wisdom: the water level of the salty lake is dropping
nearly 1.2m a year.
Less well known is
the fact part of the lake is actually overflowing, threatening one of Israel's
key tourism destinations.
Israel is
feverishly campaigning to have the Dead Sea _ the lowest point on earth and
repository of precious minerals _ named one of the natural wonders of the
world.
At the same time,
it's racing to stabilise what it calls ``the world's largest natural spa'' so
hotels on its southern end aren't swamped and tourists can continue to soak in
the lake's therapeutic waters. Without intervention, ``in five to 10 years,
[the water] would flood the hotel lobbies, no question,'' said Alon Tal, one of
the researchers the government has commissioned to find a solution.
The Dead Sea is
divided into a northern and southern basin that are at different elevations,
largely disconnected and kilometres apart. That means the rising waters of the
southern basin cannot simply pour into the shrinking basin in the north.
Heavy
industrialisation is causing the waters of the southern basin to rise. Chemical
companies have built evaporation pools there to extract lucrative minerals from
the lake. Millions of tonnes of salt are left annually on the floor of those
pools, causing the water to rise 20cm a year.
Israel's tourism
and environmental protection ministers are endorsing Tal's most expensive
proposal: a US$2 billion ($2.45billion) plan to chip off the salt build-up on
the part of the lake that's rising and send it by conveyor belt to the northern
end that's dropping. They're also demanding Dead Sea Works Ltd _ the
multibillion-dollar Israeli industry that mines the mineral-rich waters _ foot
the bill. ``As the polluters, they should pay,'' said Roee Elisha, associate
director of the Dead Sea Preservation Government Company, a branch of
Israel'sTourism Ministry.
Today, the lake is
one of Israel's top tourism draws. Half of the 3.45million tourists to Israel
paid a stop there in 2010.
Almost 200,000
stayed in the 4000 hotel rooms along the lake. Locals flock there, too, more
than 630,000 _ almost one in 10 Israelis _ spending time at Dead Sea hotels
last year. Dead Sea tourism revenue totalled some US$300 million ($368million)
last year, propping up an industry that accounts for thousands of jobs in a
part of the country that otherwise offers limited employment opportunities.
Current efforts to
preserve the Dead Sea as a natural treasure shine a spotlight on how
extensively the lake has been exploited by modern industry _ and how it
paradoxically also depends on industry for its survival.
Israel'sDead Sea
Works and Jordan'sArab Potash mine Dead Sea waters for potash and other
minerals, exporting them worldwide for use in fertilisers, cosmetics, cars and
laptops. The southern basin now in danger of flooding nearly dried up before
the chemical companies intervened. In the 1960s, Dead Sea Works dug a 16km-long
canal to pump saltwater from the lake's northern basin into its nearly parched
southern end, turning it into a network of evaporation pools.
The southern end
is where most of the Israeli hotels lie, and where tourists bob in filmy water
so heavy with salt and minerals that they float.
But as the water
rises, it encroaches on hotel beaches, where blobs of salt stick out near the
shores and the salty floor sparkles in the turquoise waters. At one beach,
stairs leading to the lake have become half-submerged, and a sun umbrella
permanently fixed to the edge is now deep in the water.
Dead Sea Works
says it will foot some of the bill to dredge the salt from the evaporation
pools and send it north, but is negotiating its share with the government, said
Noam Goldstein, the company's vice-president of infrastructure.
Environmentalists
accuse the company of profiting at the expense of the ecology. Its factory of
smokestacks, pipes and levers looms at the tip of the lake, and its tractors
sit high atop snow-white piles of potash. The company counters that without it,
tourists in Israeli hotels would have nothing to swim in _ the hotels sit on
the banks of their evaporation pools. The salt dredging proposal still awaits a
final government approval.
It's the exact
opposite problem at the Dead Sea's northern basin, where the water level is
dropping and a barren, pockmarked moonscape has replaced sandy beaches.
Old boardwalks
that once led into the lake now stand in the middle of empty land. At one
beach, bathers must ride a trolley to the lake's edge.
Israel, Jordan and
Syria are responsible for the northern Dead Sea's dramatic shrinkage: they have
redirected the Jordan River and its tributaries for drinking water, drastically
reducing the amount that used to flow into the Dead Sea. The Israeli and
Jordanian industries also pump out water from the sea for their evaporation
pools.
The World Bank is
studying a decades-old proposal to replenish the northern Dead Sea's waters by
channelling water through a canal from the Red Sea, more than 160 kilometres
south. With costs estimated at up to US$15 billion and the environmental
side-effects unpredictable, the Red-Dead canal is unlikely to be built any time
soon.
In the meantime,
Israel's Cabinet recently announced it would invest US$2.5 million to market
the Dead Sea in the international New 7 Wonders of Nature competition, which ends
in November. AP
Gov't
underestimated Dead Sea Works profit by NIS 13b
Globes (Tel Aviv): 16 June 2011
[What follows is the full text of the news story.]
June 16--The huge
profits made by Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL) unit Dead Sea Works are well
known now, but the company's potential was not always so obvious. The valuation
made for the Government Companies Authority, on which the privatization of the
company was based, is the proof. "Globes" discloses this document for
the first time. The difference between Israel Chemicals' unit Dead Sea Works
estimated profits and its actual profits between 1998 and 2010 was NIS 13
billion.
The valuation for
Dead Sea Works in September 1991 -- 20 years ago -- undertook a very ambitious
goal to predict Dead Sea Works' sales and profits through 2017. The valuation
was a critical document for the Ministry of Finance officials in charge of
privatizing the company, as it set the value for Israel Chemicals' IPO.
The privatization
of Israel Chemicals began in 1992 with the sale of 20 percent of the company on
the TASE, based in part on a valuation of $1.3 billion for the company. Another
valuation for the company at the time was even lower. In 1995, the late Shaul
Eisenberg, through Israel Corporation (TASE: ILCO), acquired the 24.9 percent
controlling interest in Israel Chemicals for $231 million, on the basis its
market cap at the time. In 1997, the government sold another 17 percent of
Israel Chemicals to Eisenberg for $200 million.
Then Government
Companies Authority director Tzipi Livni, now the chairwoman of Kadima and head
of the Opposition, told the Knesset Finance Committee at the time that the
government made money on the sale, because prices on the TASE were up.
Eisenberg died in
1997, and two years later, in 1999, Israel Corp. was sold to Ofer Holdings
Group, owned by the Ofer family.
Israel Chemicals
tried to prevent the disclosure of this report. When "Globes" asked
the Government Companies Authority to see the document, Israel Chemicals filed
an objection, on the grounds that it was liable to mislead TASE investors. The
company withdrew its objections only after the Government Companies Authority
said that there were no grounds for such a claim.
A comparison of
forecasts for Israel Chemicals with its actual performance shows a huge gap for
some subsidiaries, most of all for Dead Sea Works. For example, the analysts
predicted a 2010 profit by Dead Sea Works of NIS 189.6 million profit; its
actual profit was 13 times higher -- NIS 2.5 billion. The company's NIS 5.3
billion profit in 2008 was 30 times the analysts' forecasts, boosted by soaring
prices for potash.
The
"Globes" revelation comes as Minister of Tourism Stas Misezhnikov and
Minister of Environmental Protection Gilad Erdan propose that Israel Chemicals
pay most of the estimated NIS 5-7 billion cost of rehabilitating the southern
basin of the Dead Sea, where the company's mining operations are carried out.
___
To see more of the
Globes or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/nodeview.asp?fid=942.
Copyright (c)
2011, Globes, Tel Aviv, Israel
Distributed by
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For more
information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information
Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail
services@mctinfoservices.com, or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States,
call +1 312-222-4544)
Both shrinking and
flooding threaten Dead Sea
Daily Star, The (Lebanon): 14 June 2011
[What follows is the full text of the news story.]
EIN BOKEK, Israel:
The Dead Sea is dying, goes the conventional wisdom: The water level of the
fabled salty lake is dropping nearly 1.2 meters a year.
Less well known:
Part of the lake is actually overflowing, threatening one of Israel's key
tourism destinations.Israel is feverishly campaigning to have the Dead Sea �
the lowest point on earth and repository of precious minerals � named one of
the natural wonders of the world.
At the same time,
it's racing to stabilize what it calls "the world's largest natural
spa" so hotels on its southern end aren't swamped and tourists can
continue to soak in the lake's therapeutic waters.
Without
intervention, "in five to 10 years, [the water] would flood the hotel
lobbies, no question," said Alon Tal, one of the researchers the
government has commissioned to find a solution.
The Dead Sea is
divided into a northern and southern basin, which are located at different
elevations, largely disconnected and kilometers apart. That means the rising
waters of the southern basin cannot simply pour into the shrinking basin in the
north.
Heavy
industrialization is what's causing the waters on the southern basin to rise.
Chemical companies
have built evaporation pools there to extract lucrative minerals from the lake.
Millions of tons of salt are left annually on the floor of these pools, causing
the water to rise 20 centimeters a year.
Israel's tourism
and environmental protection ministers are endorsing Tal's most expensive proposal:
A complex $2 billion plan to chip off the salt buildup on the part of the lake
that's rising and send it by conveyor belt to the northern end that's dropping.
They're also
demanding that Dead Sea Works Ltd. � the multibillion-dollar Israeli industry
that mines the mineral-rich waters � foot the bill.
"As the
polluters, they should pay," said Roee Elisha, associate director of the
Dead Sea Preservation Government Company Ltd., a branch of Israel'sTourism
Ministry.
The Dead Sea,
which is linked to the sites of the biblical Sodom and Gomorra, runs more than
100 kilometers through Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. Its minerals have been
sought after since ancient times: The pharaohs were embalmed with the lake's
natural asphalt lumps, and Cleopatra is said to have used its skin-rejuvenating
salts and mud.
Today, the lake is
one of Israel's top tourism draws. Half of the 3.45 million tourists to Israel
paid a stop there in 2010. Almost 200,000 stayed in the 4,000 hotel rooms along
the lake. Locals flock there too, with more than 630,000 � or almost one in
10 Israelis � spending time at Dead Sea hotels last year.
Dead Sea tourism
revenue totaled some $300 million last year, propping up an industry that
accounts for thousands of jobs in a part of the country that otherwise offers
limited employment opportunities.
Current efforts to
preserve the Dead Sea as a natural treasure shine a spotlight on how
extensively the lake has been exploited by modern industry � and how it
paradoxically also depends on industry for its survival.
Israel'sDead Sea
Works and Jordan'sArab Potash mine Dead Sea waters for potash and other
minerals, exporting them worldwide for use in fertilizers, cosmetics, cars and
laptops.
The southern basin
now in danger of flooding nearly dried up before the chemical companies
intervened. In the 1960s, Dead Sea Works dug a 16-kilometer canal to pump
saltwater from the lake's northern basin into its nearly parched southern end,
turning it into a network of evaporation pools.
That pool is where
the bulk of the Israeli hotels lie, and where tourists bob in filmy water so
heavy with salt and minerals that they float.
But as the water
rises, it encroaches on hotel beaches, where blobs of salt stick out near the
shores and the salty floor sparkles in the turquoise waters. At one beach,
stairs leading to the lake have become half-submerged, and a sun umbrella
permanently affixed to the edge is now deep in the water.
Dead Sea Works
says it will foot some of the bill to dredge the salt from the evaporation
pools and send it north, but is negotiating its share with the government, said
Noam Goldstein, the firm's vice president of infrastructure.
Environmentalists
accuse the company of profiting at the expense of the ecology. Its factory of
smokestacks, pipes and levers looms at the tip of the lake, and its tractors
sit high atop snow-white piles of potash.
The company
counters that without it, tourists in Israeli hotels would have nothing to swim
in � the hotels sit on the banks of their evaporation pools.
The salt dredging
proposal still awaits a final government approval.
It's the exact
opposite problem at the Dead Sea's northern basin, where the water level is
dropping and a barren, pockmarked moonscape has replaced sandy beaches.
Old boardwalks that
once led into the lake now stand in the middle of empty land. At one beach,
bathers must ride a trolley to the lake's edge.
Israel, Jordan and
Syria are responsible for the northern Dead Sea's dramatic shrinkage: They have
redirected the Jordan River and its tributaries for drinking water, drastically
reducing the amount that used to flow into the Dead Sea. The Israeli and
Jordanian industries also pump out water from the sea for their evaporation
pools.
The World Bank is
studying a decades-old proposal to replenish the northern Dead Sea's waters by
channeling water through a canal from the Red Sea, more than 160 kilometers
south. With costs estimated at up to $15 billion and the environmental side
effects unpredictable, the Red-Dead canal is unlikely to be built any time
soon.
In the meantime,
Israel's Cabinet recently announced it would invest $2.5 million to market the
Dead Sea in the international New 7 Wonders of Nature competition, which ends
in November.
Gura Berger,
project manager for the Tourism Ministry's Dead Sea public relations campaign,
says winning the contest could help revive the lake and be a major boost to
area tourism.
"We want the
Dead Sea to be considered a wonder of the world, so there will be an interest
to protect it," Berger said.
Tourism Minister
slams Steinitz over Dead Sea plan
Globes (Tel Aviv): 05 June 2011
[What follows is the full text of the news story.]
June 05--Tensions
continue between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Tourism over the
decision taken two week ago to impose the responsibility for rehabilitating the
Dead Sea on Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL) unit Dead Sea Works, which will
bear most of the costs, estimated at NIS 7 billion. Minister of Tourism Stas
Misezhnikov, who was behind the decision, together with Ministry of
Environmental Protection Gilad Erdan, today asked Minister of Finance Yuval
Steinitz to order senior Ministry of Finance officials to stop attacking the
decision.
"Order the
officials in your ministry to focus on finding a solution for financing
implementation of the proposed plan, ahead of preparing a proposal to the
cabinet and desist press briefings against elected officials and the structure
of the decision," wrote Misezhnikov.
Misezhnikov and Erdan
presented the plan for rehabilitating the southern basin of the Dead Sea and to
prevent the flooding of the hotels at Ein Bokek. The plan includes dredging the
salt deposits accumulated on the floor of the southern basin -- deposits for
which Dead Sea Works' industrial production is responsible. The two ministers
proposed that Israel Chemicals should finance the expensive dredging, and that
part of the company's royalties to the state from quarrying operations should
be raised to 10 percent and deposited in a special fund for financing the
development of tourism in the Dead Sea area. The two ministers intend to submit
the plan to the cabinet for approval in two weeks.
The Ministry of
Finance objects to the plan, and top officials criticized it shortly after it
was announced. The officials claim that Misezhnikov and Erdan were dragged
after radicals, and that they did not take into account the disaster that an
unsupervised plan is liable to cause the tourism and quarrying industries at
the Dead Sea. Ministry of Finance officials are also negotiating with Israel
Chemicals on a compromise for financing the dredging of salt in the Dead Sea's
southern basin.
In his letter to
Steinitz, Misezhnikov added, "The Ministry of Finance was supposed to have
been ready a long time ago -- at least several years -- for our declaration,
both in terms of sharing the financing for rehabilitating the area and for
establishing a designated budget for its development. My declaration cannot
therefore be considered as a surprise for anyone at the Ministry of Finance,
and definitely not as harmful to the Israeli economy, as some ministry
officials and spokesmen are attempting to portray it."
___
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Globes or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/nodeview.asp?fid=942.
Copyright (c)
2011, Globes, Tel Aviv, Israel
Distributed by
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information
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call +1 312-222-4544)
Sammy Ofer dies at
89; Israeli business tycoon
Los Angeles Times (CA): 04 June 2011
[What follows is the full text of the news story.]
June 04--REPORTING
FROM JERUSALEM -- Israeli billionaire Sammy Ofer, whose powerful, family-owned
conglomerate is under scrutiny for alleged dealings with Iran, died Friday in
Tel Aviv after a long illness. He was 89.
Considered
Israel's richest man with a family fortune estimated by Forbes at $10.3
billion, Ofer and his brother, Yuli, built Ofer Bros. Group into Israel's
biggest private enterprise, with interests in shipping, oil refineries,
chemicals, semiconductors, banking and media.
"Ofer was a
Zionist through and through, and never forgot his commitment to others, even
when he ascended to great heights," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.
Among the family's
holdings are stakes in Israel Corp., Zim Shipping, Royal Caribbean International,
Dead Sea Works, Israel Chemicals and Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank.
Colleagues said
Ofer's business acumen and management skills set a new standard in Israel for
running for-profit companies, helping transform the country's economy over the
last 20 years from one dominated by lackluster government-run companies to a
fast-growing market that draws international investment.
"He's the one
who helped bring in huge funds from abroad by buying Israeli companies,
investing in Israeli companies and making Israeli companies flourish,"
said Shlomo Maoz, chief economist at Excellence Investment, one of Israel's
largest investment houses. "His impact on the economy has been
unbelievable."
Ofer is survived
by his wife, Aviva; and two sons, Eyal and Idan, who have been running the
company for years.
"The group's
business will continue without change, while protecting our tradition of hard
work and commitment, which constitute the great inheritance Sammy left behind
him," the company said in a statement Friday.
The family's
fortunes and government ties have long stirred controversy in Israel. Critics
allege that the family has used its influence to win lucrative concessions,
particularly in purchasing government assets, such as oil refineries.
A journalist and
documentary-maker who accused the Ofers of corruption in 2008 found no
commercial television channel willing to air his film after the family
threatened to sue.
Last week, Ofer
Bros. was in the headlines again amid allegations that the company had
commercial dealings with Iran, Israel's archenemy.
U.S. officials
have accused an Ofer subsidiary of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran by
selling an oil tanker for $8.6 million to a front company, which then sold it
to an Iranian firm.
In a statement
last week, Ofer officials said they were not aware that the final buyer was an
Iranian firm.
The State
Department said Ofer "failed to exercise due diligence" and should
have known it was dealing with an Iranian front company.
Since then,
Israeli media reports allege that at least half a dozen Ofer-owned ships have
docked in Iranian ports over the last decade, raising questions about whether
the company also violated Israeli restrictions on commercial trade with Iran.
Israeli officials are mulling whether to open an investigation.
Ofer
representatives, speaking anonymously to the media, claimed that the company
had government permission to visit Iran and hinted that it was assisting in the
"national" interest. Israeli officials quickly denied such claims and
the company later backed away from the statements.
Born in Romania in
1922, Ofer immigrated with his family at the age of 2 to Palestine, which was
then under British control. He served in the Royal Navy during World War II and
the Israeli navy during Israel's 1948 war of independence.
He and his brother
turned their father's small Haifa-based shipping firm into one of the world's
largest, purchasing their first ship in 1950.
A philanthropist
and collector of Impressionist art, the notoriously press-shy Ofer -- widely
recognized for his trademark goggle-like eyeglasses -- in recent years spent
much of his time in Monte Carlo before settling back in Israel.
Services will be
held Sunday in Tel Aviv.
edmund.sanders@latimes.com
___
To see more of the
Los Angeles Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.latimes.com.
Copyright (c)
2011, Los Angeles Times
Distributed by
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For more
information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information
Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail
services@mctinfoservices.com, or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States,
call +1 312-222-4544)
FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES
|
Currency |
Unit
|
Indian Rupees |
|
US Dollar |
1 |
Rs.44.80 |
|
|
1 |
Rs.72.85 |
|
Euro |
1 |
Rs.63.11 |
RATING EXPLANATIONS
|
RATING |
STATUS |
PROPOSED CREDIT LINE |
|
|
>86 |
Aaa |
Possesses an extremely sound financial base with the strongest capability
for timely payment of interest and principal sums |
Unlimited |
|
71-85 |
Aa |
Possesses adequate working capital. No caution needed for credit
transaction. It has above average (strong) capability for payment of interest
and principal sums |
Large |
|
56-70 |
A |
Financial & operational base are regarded healthy. General
unfavourable factors will not cause fatal effect. Satisfactory capability for
payment of interest and principal sums |
Fairly Large |
|
41-55 |
Ba |
Overall operation is considered normal. Capable to meet normal
commitments. |
Satisfactory |
|
26-40 |
B |
Capability to overcome financial difficulties seems comparatively
below average. |
Small |
|
11-25 |
Ca |
Adverse factors are apparent. Repayment of interest and principal sums
in default or expected to be in default upon maturity |
Limited with
full security |
|
<10 |
C |
Absolute credit risk exists. Caution needed to be exercised |
Credit not
recommended |
|
-- |
NB |
New Business |
-- |
This score serves as a reference to assess SC’s credit risk
and to set the amount of credit to be extended. It is calculated from a composite
of weighted scores obtained from each of the major sections of this report. The
assessed factors and their relative weights (as indicated through %) are as
follows:
Financial
condition (40%) Ownership
background (20%) Payment
record (10%)
Credit history
(10%) Market trend
(10%) Operational
size (10%)
This report is issued at your request without any
risk and responsibility on the part of MIRA INFORM PRIVATE LIMITED (MIPL)
or its officials.